Certainly does for me, though not with barrels. A venerable Highwayman, life in the slow lane at 38 mph. 150 Gardner and 6 speed gate change. Lovely.
That interior shot really does take me back. Of course, no tacho in my day and I donât remember the heater to the right of the driverâs knee, perhaps because mine never had one.
The gear lever and handbrake are spot on but from that angle you canât see the hand throttle which was attached either to the side of the engine cover or the side of the instrument panel box. It was a simple lever attached to a cable which I think went into the engine space to connect to the linkage from the throttle pedal. Mine was broken and I had a wooden stick which I jammed between the accelerator and one of the screws which protruded from the panel in front of my knees.
It is a wonder to me that, especially considering the slow speeds and long hours behind the wheel, that any of us didnât doze off and join the landscape.
Finally, how in the hell could I have slept in that? I did manage to bridge the gap between the 2 seats but it doesnât look that comfy, does it? Not that I got much chance, if the local police did catch me snoozing they would wake me up and send me on my way, they knew we carried whisky and didnât want a hi-jack on their patch.
Thanks for the memory.
BTW, are those 2 (3?) Harrisons from Rotherham?. Might explain the tacho.
The steering wheel angle looks far more comfortable than the flat, bus like wheels of cab overs. Sorry, thatâs the only nice thing I can say about it.
The interior picture doesnât go with the 2nd pic (I only added the 2nd pic for context). And yes, youâre right, they are Harrisons.
They arenât of course exactly the same, the 2nd one in the picture is an earlier model I think, but the interior is taken much later than my time because of the retro fitted tacho, something I had never heard of when I was behind the wheel in one. In fact we didnât even have official logbooks or even sheets in those days. We had company designed and printed ones which could be swapped at any time.
looking at the vehicles in the background, and the presence of the tacho, I just wonder if that pic wasnât taken at a rally or truckshowâŚ
Harrisonâs ran those 3 axle scammells re engined with Gardner 180s until around 2002 hence the tacho,
i recall seeing them certainly after the year 2000. Incredible that they got so much use out of them,
Even more incredible they could recruit willing drivers⌠although i would love to have a go (with instruction)
The pic with the erf in the background is in the yard in Sheffield, the erf is in their livery.
They were surprisingly relaxing to drive. With the engine largely outside they were quieter and in the summer, cooler. The slow speed was due to very low gearing so not a lot of changes to do between Nottingham and Glasgow, and even in the S. Wales Valleys. I often went down there and in fact delivered steel for the building of the first Severn Bridge.
The worst thing I remember was, in the days before largely palletised loads, the short tractor with the cab behind the engine meant that there wasnât much room between cab and trailer. So the trailers were all bow fronted which made loading by hand cartons of whatever quite a problem to get them to stack neat and square.
We had our moments though, Typically coming down from Stainmore towards Scotch Corner we would knock them out of cog boosting the speeds into the 60s
Quite apart from the inadvisability of that, you had to get the speed down by brakes alone to get it back into gear before you got to the sharp turn onto a narrow bridge. The road was not as it is now, much less straight. I remember arriving at the bridge one day to see my mate parked on the other side. He had managed the bridge ok but had forced it into gear with the speed way too high. He destroyed one or all of the engine, gearbox and diff as a result.
He later became a transport manager. Why not?
Poacher became gamekeeper knowing all the tricks!!!
And breaking a Scammell is some trick!
Yes indeed, and I am another one, not that I broke anything but as soon as I took up my post I realised that the 2 lads who did the trunk from Nottingham to Hyde and back every day did not need a night out on the way back from the 2nd journey.
I pointed this out to them gently and no more was said, and they immediately started completing 2 trips per day.
Yes, and to this day I do not know the full extent of the damage. All I know is that he was standing rather forelornly alongside the Highwayman from which emitted a pall of smoke. I thought he had set it on fire, but it was just the brakes.